Liberals’ Love Affair with Woke Communism
This article is an opinion piece from Bill Lockwood. Catch American Liberty with Bill Lockwood weekly at 11 a.m. Saturdays on NewsTalk 1290.
Best-selling author Paul Kengor’s unrivaled work on communistic influence, "Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century," is praised because it “exposes the legions of liberals who have unwittingly aided America’s most dangerous opponents over the past century.” The word “unwittingly” is a kind judgment. “Wittingly” seems to reflect reality more accurately.
To be “woke” is to be obsessed about race, gender, orientation; it is to applaud “diversity” and “inclusion”; to be willing to sacrifice freedom for “climate change.” It is to see micro-aggressions in every corner of society and to recognize that there are “identity-based injustices” where the majority population sees nothing.
Because our society has jettisoned the baseline teaching of morality so that our cultural leaders have practically no moral compass nor adhere to any ethical standard, corporate heads and CEO’s have become weak-minded. Minds like putty. Many have subscribed to "wokeism" for their own companies while at the same time favoring amoral communist countries like China. Hypocrisy at its worst.
The following are just a few samples highlighted by Vivek Ramaswamy in "Woke, Inc."
Airbnb
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky announced in 2020 that the company would make decisions based on “stakeholders,” not just “shareholders.” Sean Joyce had been hired previously to “protect users’ safety on the platform.” But he became concerned that Airbnb was sharing data on millions of its users with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
When Chinese officials approached Airbnb with desires for more sharing of private data of Americans, Joyce took his concerns to the top officials at Airbnb. Co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk responded: “we are not here to promote AMERICAN values.” Joyce resigned and Airbnb continues to lie in bed with the CCP. That is the price that Airbnb willingly pays to make money in China.
NBA
A better illustration is with the National Basketball Association. When Houston Rockets Manager Daryl Morey tweeted on his personal account supporting freedom in Hong Kong, the CCP was incensed. The Chinese consulate in Houston denounced Morey. The owner of the Rockets, Tilman Fiertitta, followed suit: “Daryl Morey does not speak for the Rockets,” he urged.
Next, the Chinese Basketball Association announced it would not cooperate with the Rockets and the NBA, crawling to the CCP, issued an official statement that Morey’s tweet was regrettable. Morey stepped down from the Rockets in October 2020.
But the saga continued. All Chinese broadcasters refused to show any NBA games; Nike pulled all its Rockets gear from stores in China; and all of those big men who play in the NBA? They wanted only to please their communist masters.
Rockets player James Harden said, “We apologize. You know, we love China. We love playing there.” LeBron James, always the anti-American, while in China for a pre-season game when Morey initially tweeted, said Morey had “misused his right of freedom of speech.”
Right. Lip service only to “freedom” but keep “controversial thoughts” to yourself. That’s the kind of “liberty” that the Chinese people already have.
Compare these types of remarks to LeBron’s support of communist’s Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and his frequent criticisms of Donald Trump or his public opposition to Hong Kong’s right to vote.
More importantly, to support China is to support concentration camps, forced sterilizations, beatings of innocent Chinese; and the cultural genocide against the Uighur people.
Disney, Google, Apple & Blackrock
Unfortunately, the same code of conduct is found in Disney, which did somersaults in re-writing scripts of "Doctor Strange" in order to please the CCP; or Google which had a search engine named Dragonfly that allowed China a backdoor into the data that the company collected; or Apple that hid the Taiwanese flag emoji from users in Hong Kong and Macau; or Blackrock’s Larry Flint who championed getting Chinese stocks listed on US indexes.
Association of Tennis Players
This is abject weakness is epitomized by the supposedly fearless tennis player John McEnroe, who, during his career, made continual news by his good play and big mouth. Now a commentator for the Association of Tennis Players, McEnroe was asked by Vivek Ramaswamy about the ATP’s support for Black Lives Matter. McEnroe practically stuffed his mouth with a tennis ball and meekly responded, “That’s a big question, a loaded question.”
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